Nice Tech, the leading MMO and virtual development studio, with its groundbreaking AliceServer technology, is making excellent progress on a unique Children?s MMO based around the Ragdoll IP: Tronji. With only a 12 month development schedule, Nice Tech is on schedule to complete the game in early 2008.

Ragdoll, BBC Worldwide and CBBC have selected Nice Tech to produce and develop an MMO children?s world that will compliment their forthcoming CBBC Children?s programme. As custodians of the Tronji IP, Nice Tech enjoys a fruitful working relationship with Ragdoll Productions. Paul Baker, CEO of Nice Tech, explains: ?This is a complicated development process which incorporates a series of approval benchmarks. We really respect the success of Ragdoll and are keen to emulate its design quality and high production values. We will implement the highest of development standards to rise to the challenge of doing justice to this prestigious IP. We have drawn up tight development processes, specifying regular milestones, detailed design levels, asset lists and test processes. We have reviewed our production systems to ensure that the development process can be continuously tuned, tracked and improved.?

Ragdoll and the BBC have been playing in the Tronji world since March this year. New builds are released and auto-updated every Friday, ensuring that no-one involved in the development and approval process is more than five working days behind when a build is reviewed. This ensures a near ?real time? tracking process. Nice Tech believes that all parties should be able to provide immediate feedback, which is particularly important when working with such a strong client led IP, where clarity and accuracy are essential. Ben Simpson, COO, commented ?Working alongside a studio with a global reputation and strong IP, has been a positive challenge for us. We have been keen to learn from their experience and streamline our own working practices. We feel we have really grown through this partnership ? and in such a short time!?

Tronji is now ready for its first focus testing sessions which will involve many children over the next four months. A pre-alpha testing strategy was adopted to allow early feedback and to ensure that the development meets its tight deadlines. The team at Nice Tech is able to rapidly re-think any design issue that needs moderation based on the feedback from the young testers. Ben Simpson added ?This mid-development, pre-alpha, core gameplay testing ensures that we get critical feedback from the players at an early stage. We can conduct online testing and follow what the players are doing and enjoy and use metrics to discover what?s working or needs modification.